Tag Archives: Operation Gunrunner

In a Washington Times article on Friday, December 2, 2011, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca) stated that Eric Holder did not order Operation Fast & Furious/Gunrunner. Issa declares that:

“Fast and Furious was not the first federal investigation in which “bad people are allowed to continue to do bad things in the name of going after bad people.”

Once again I find myself quoting the duck in the AFLAC commercial- HUH???????????

What a bunch of double-talking nonsense. This reminds me of an episode of the television series “MASH”, when Frank Burns comes out with a typical moronic statement of “it’s nice to be nice to the nice”. Issa must be a big fan of the character of that series because he certainly mimics the Burns character. Issa has also declined to join in the chorus of Republicans calling for Holder’s resignation or firing because his committee had not “reached all the conclusions that are appropriate in this investigation.”. Well isn’t that just special? They have been “looking into” this for a year and have found nothing that comes to the level of resignation or firing? I certainly have found enough justification in my perusal of this matter to put Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Kenneth Melson in prison for life.

Issa continued with a statement that makes we wonder how the family of Agent Terry feels knowing that the man in charge of investigating their loved one’s death thinks of him as “collateral damage”. I am not related, but I find this statement reprehensible.

“It is about a failure that seems to be pervasive within Justice that investigations play fast and loose with the expectations of what is right or wrong when it comes to what I am going to call collateral damage.”

I wrote Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley back in June asking if they would really do what is needed or if they would make a joke out of this procedure. Unfortunately, Issa has done as I expected and made a mockery, once again, of Congressional hearings into anything. This has been a dog and pony show from the beginning, as I expected it to be. Here is the letter I wrote:

Sen. Grassley, Rep. Issa, June 3, 2011

I am writing about the controversy over the BAFTE and “Project Gunrunner”. I have discovered quite a lot about this operation in my research. I have read about the illegal activities and the deaths involved, including that of Border patrol Agent Brian Terry on December 10, 2010 in a remote area near Nogales, Arizona. I don’t know how much information you have on this so I will let you know what I know and hope that, as the members of Congress investigating this matter, you have more information than I have. The gun dealers involved in this reported the suspected straw purchases to the BAFTE, as required by federal law, and were told to let them walk so the guns could be traced to crimes in Mexico. The guns were never traced and this was only discovered because one of the guns that resulted in the death of Agent Terry was left at the scene of the shootout with the border patrol agents.

Hillary Clinton runs all over the world decrying the “gun show loophole” and claiming that guns bought at gun shows and dealers like the ones in Arizona are the cause of the violence in Mexico. We all know that this is a huge lie to impose their brand of Marxist tyranny upon We the People of the United States of America. I believe the number she claims is 90% of the guns used in crimes come from gun dealers in the United States. You and I know, as does Hillary, that this is an absolute lie but she spouts it anyway.
According to Darren Gil, the agency’s attaché in Mexico City, he was not informed of this operation nor was anyone in the Mexican government. Mr. Gil was forced to resign and claims that the authority for this operation came from the BATFE director and the Justice Department, headed by Eric Holder. When Mr. Gil found out about an unusually high number of guns captured by Mexican authorities being traced back to Phoenix, he asked for information. He told CBS in an interview that the meetings in which he challenged his superiors about the operation turned into shouting matches and he was instructed to continue to keep his Mexican counterparts in the dark about the operation.

BATFE agent John Dodson was also attempting to use the “whistleblower” statutes to reveal this illegal operation but was thwarted by a lack of response from superiors who refused to answer e-mails and telephone calls. Agent Dodson told CBS that his superiors told him that “if they were going to make omelets that they had to break some eggs”. It is a shame that one of those “eggs” that had to be broken was Brian Terry. All the time this was going on the administration was using the violence in Mexico as an excuse to attempt to subvert the 2nd Amendment and restrict law abiding citizens from owning firearms, in violation of the Constitution.

Barak Obama and Eric Holder both claim to be ignorant of this operation but are they not responsible for the actions of the bureaucrats that they appoint to office? I believe they not only knew about this operation but also either conceived it or approved it. This action rises to the level of conspiracy to violate numerous laws, violations that would land me a very long prison sentence if I committed them. Am I to assume that it is permissible for the President of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States, and the Director of the BATFE to enter into a conspiracy to violate firearms laws and the Constitution? If I am bound by these laws certainly the top law enforcement officer of the nation and his boss, the president, should be subject to these same laws.

I ask you to do your duty as the members of Congress investigating this matter to file charges and order the arrest of Barak Obama, Eric Holder, and the Director of the BATFE Kenneth Melson for murder in the death of Agent Terry, conspiracy to violate firearms laws, conspiracy to cover up this illegal action, and treason for conspiracy to intentionally violate the provisions of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. As a law abiding citizen of the United States, I cannot stand by and allow the very highest officers in this nation to flagrantly violate the law, and neither can you.

The continued obfuscation and cover-up of this operation is a matter of grave concern to all people who wish to live in a free Republic. If these men are allowed to escape justice for their actions what does that say about the rule of law in our land? What does it say to people like me who obey the law and do our best to make this country great? If this goes unpunished does it mean that I can do as I wish and ignore any law that is inconvenient to me? That seems to be what Obama, Holder, Melson, and others have done, ignore the very law they swore to uphold. What kind of example does that set for others if they are above the law and are allowed to do as they please because they are better than I?

I guess my question to you is will you do what is called for by law or will you sit around and wring your hands and do nothing? Will you do your duty as officers of the federal government to uphold the law and the Constitution or will you sit back and hold hearings that gain no information, and let this slide so as to not make waves? Do you have the courage to stand on law and order or will you turn a blind eye to evil and corruption? The whole nation is looking for elected officials who will stand by their oath of office and represent the Constitution and We the People of the United States of America, a quality that seems to be in very short supply these days. Will you be the ones we are looking for to show true leadership and integrity or will you be another cog in the wheel of that corruption? I know members of Congress aren’t very good at answering letters but I would very much appreciate an answer to this one. I think the American people deserve an answer to the questions I have posed here. Are you truly servants of the people?

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.
In God We Trust,
Bob Russell
Claremore, Ok.

Isn’t this what we have come to expect from Congress? Isn’t this the normal hand wringing that ends in no action? Isn’t this the usual result of Republican “investigations” by any committee of Congress? The Constitution and the laws based upon it are ignored time and again by members of our government. They do as they wish and ignore the pleas of We the People to act in accordance with the laws of the land. I included the letter I wrote to Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley in this article to let people know that this result of the “investigation” was anticipated, and feared, from the outset. I also included the names of those in Congress that received copies of my letter. To date the only response I have received is from Sen. Coburn.

We the People are not being represented in Washington D. C., by either party. They are so busy playing fast and loose with the truth, with justice, and with the Constitution, that I fear nothing will ever be done to clean up the swamp of corruption that is our federal government. All of them are real good at running to the closest television camera or microphone to bleat out their “outrage” at what has happened, but none of them actually do anything to solve the problems. As I mentioned in a recent article, the Democrat and Republican Parties are two wings of the same bird, and have been giving We the People the bird for much too long.

The game plan in the federal government, and lately in the State of Oklahoma government, is to talk tough but do nothing. Teddy Roosevelt said, “walk softly but carry a big stick”. Today the motto of elected people is to “talk big but do nothing”. Neither party has any desire to clean up the evil of government. They are more interested in ruling than governing. We the People are merely pawns in their game of power and have no meaning to either political party other than as subjects. While the members of Congress, bureaucrats, and various presidential administrations sit on their thrones and postulate, our nation and our freedom go down the sewer.

This announcement by Issa is more proof that those in charge in Washington D. C. have no regard for those who put them there. Members of Congress, bureaucrats, and members of presidential administrations are omnipotent and beyond being held responsible for what they do. The dog and pony shows will go on until We the People revolt and make major changes in government. As long as we continue to elect people based on party affiliation we will continue to see the same results.

George Washington warned us about political parties in his farewell address. The political party has become an entity unto itself, with self-preservation being the mind-set of both parties. Unless we remove the Republican Party as the party we look to for truth, justice, and the American way, we are doomed. The Democrat Party has been completely taken over by the Marxists and Communists, and those who were run out of that party are now in charge of the Republican Party. We the People have no voice in Washington, and won’t unless we unite against the “ruling class” that controls both political parties.

We are losing our freedom because too many are willing to compromise that freedom and vote for “anyone but Obama” as the latest in the trend of voter cowardice and the herd mentality. Choosing the “lesser of two evils” will never be the answer to the dangers faced by the United States of America. The only way for our way of life, our liberty, to survive is to have the courage to stand for our guiding principles and stop giving in to the fear mongering attitude of voting for whoever the Republican establishment gives us to vote for. As long as they know we have no other options nothing will change. Until the voters stand up and vote for the one “who has no chance to win” we will continue to see our freedom sold to the highest bidder.

The announcement by Issa is one more example of “good old boy” politics. They are a fraternity, all of them, and We the People are the nerds who cannot be trusted with a voice in the future of our nation. I can only imagine how disappointed our founding fathers would be in what our nation has become.

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.